An Introduction to Evo Devo
By Nabeel Mohammed
Introduction
Aim of Evo Devo is to discover how
biological processes create form.
Every animal is the result of:
Development from the egg (Embryology)
Evolution from its ancestors
Animal Architecture
Modular design is a design approach that
subdivides a system into smaller parts
which can be independently created and
used in different systems.
Animals, as a whole and to their individual
body parts, follow a modular architecture.
Animal Architecture
A close-up view of a butterfly eyespot
reveals the color pattern formed by rows
of scales. Note that each scale is one
color and "stray" scales exist in fields of
other colored scales.
Diagram of Hand.
Reference: Wordpress.com
Animal Architecture
Homologs are structures present in different
species which are derived from a common
ancestor.
Serial homologs are structures that arose as a
repeated series and have become differentiated
to varying degrees in different animals.
Changes in the number and kind of serial
homologs are a principle theme in animal
evolution.
Animal Architecture
Homologous forelimbs [Reference: betterlesson.com]
Animal Architecture
Serial Homologs in Beetle [Reference: g3journal.org]
Animal Architecture
Willistons Law: Parts in an organism tend
toward reduction in number, with the fewer
parts greatly specialized in function.
Animal bodies and body parts usually show
symmetry and polarity.
Animal Architecture
Reference: starfish.ch
Reference:
fearfuladventurer.com
Reference: shutterstock.com
Animal Architecture
Polarity axes exists in most animals as three
in number:
Head to tail
Top to Bottom (front to back in humans since
we stand up)
Near to Far from the body (in reference to
structures that project from the main body)
Master genes
Spemman studied tied a baby hair along the
furrow between two cells of the embryo and
discovered that this resulted in normal
identical tadpoles.
However, tying the hair perpendicular to the
furrow resulted in a normal tadpole and a
disorganized mess of belly tissue.
Master genes
Induction of
Polydactyly in a
chicken.
Transplantation of the
zone of polarizing
activity in the
developing wing bud
from a posterior site to
a new anterior
position induces extra
digits with opposite
polarity to the normal
digit pattern.
Master genes
Induction of eyespots in a butterfly. Transplantation of
cells at the centre of a developing eyespot to other locations
in the developing wing induces an eyespot in those
locations.
From E coli to Elephants
What is true for E coli is also true for the elephant
Jacques Monod
From E coli to Elephants
From E coli to Elephants
The lac operon mechanism had the typical
features of gene logic in bacteria:
The regulated use of a gene occurs through the
on/off binding of a DNA binding protein.
The DNA binding protein recognizes a specific
DNA sequence near a gen
From E coli to Elephants
For
the fruit fly, the bithorax and
Antennapedia complexes were discovered.
The former consisted of three genes that
affected the back half of the fly while the
latter consisted of five genes which affected
the front half of the fly.
Also, the relative order of the genes
corresponded to the relative order of the
body parts.
From E coli to Elephants
It was then seen that these genes governing
major aspects of fruit fly body organization
was found to have exact counterparts in most
animals and that they were governed by the
same gene for similar body parts.
This was in contrast to the belief at the time
that the greater the disparity in animal forms,
the less the development of the two animals
would have in common at the gene level.
From E coli to Elephants
The 8 genes in Fruit fly all had a short stretch
of about 180 base pairs that were very similar
in sequence.
The shared DNA sequence was dubbed the
homeobox and the corresponding protein
domain was called the homeodomain.
The homeodomain was found to be similar to
the lac repressor and a whole category of DNA
binding proteins which bind to genetic
switches.
From E coli to Elephants
Studies of the Hox genes in mice and men
showed that once again, the order of genes
in each cluster also corresponded to the
order of body regions in the mouse in which
they were exposed.
Pax-6 gene, distal-less (Dll) and tinman
proteins were all found to have
homeodomains.
From E coli to Elephants
Volhard
and Wieschaus systematically
identified all genes necessary to build fruit
fly larva.
Hedgehog gene was found to consist of
sonic hedgehog, desert hedgehog and
Indian hedgehog.
Sonic hedgehog being affected is found to
be responsible for polydactly and cyclopia.
From E coli to Elephants
Toolkit paradox
If
the sets of genes responsible fro
development are so widely shared, how do
differences arise?
This can be explained by two ideas:
Diversity is because of how the animal uses the
toolkit of master genes, not what it has.
Regulatory DNA exists separately from the
toolkit.
Development of embryo
Reductionism was the common way biologists
had operated till the late 20th century i.e.
reducing processes and structures to the
molecular level.
However, many biological entities (cells,
organs, organisms) are organized at much
higher levels. Thus, our understanding of the
toolkit does not enable us understand how it
results in the development of an organism.
Development of embryo
Fruit fly and frog embryos are vulnerable to
predators and thus grow rapidly while human
development takes place in a maximum
security environment and unfolds far more
slowly.
However, the overall development occurs with
similar steps: Rapid division of zygote to form
ball -> Formation of germ layers -> Formation
of neural tube -> Formation of bulges marking
limbs, head and tail -> Formation of dorsal fin
-> Further development -> Baby
Development of embryo
How does the embryo know which part will
be the head and which will be the tail? Or
the top or bottom?
How does it decide where to put the eyes,
legs, or wings?
Which cells will go on to form muscles,
nerves, blood, bone, skin, liver, etc? At
what point in embryonic development is a
cell's fate sealed?
Development of embryo
Development of embryo
Development of embryo
Development of embryo
Development of embryo
Development of embryo
